Plot Twist
by Potterworm
Summary: In another universe, Riley doesn't appreciate being kept on the hook for nearly a year. Or, plot twist, where Riley chooses friendship with Maya – and herself - over the boy. Inspired by a tumblr post. Set during an alternate universe, Ski Lodge Part 2.


**Summary:** In another universe, Riley doesn't appreciate being kept on the hook for nearly a year. Or, plot twist, where Riley chooses friendship with Maya – and herself - over the boy. Inspired by a tumblr post. Set during an alternate universe, Ski Lodge Part 2.

 **Plot Twist**

 **by Potterworm**

The air is warm on Riley's shoulders when Lucas comes up to her at the ski lodge bay window. He starts talking to her, all soft and western white knight. He's saying everything she's wanted to hear for the last year, and she feels girly and like a princess, like she's on the white horse in their middle school hallway again. And – yet –

"I choose you, Riley," he says. He's smiling at her, and his smile is the most earnest thing she has ever seen. Still, she can't help it; she can't help wondering.

"But – did you?" she asks. She means for it to come out like an accusation, but it comes out questioning. She tries again: "Did you really? If Maya had to send you, did you really pick me?"

Lucas stammers and says, "You know I didn't want to hurt anyone. I had to wait to make sure that-"

"That Maya would be okay. No, I know," Riley replies. "I _love_ Maya; she's my best friend. Of course I know. But – I stepped back Lucas. I tried to give you the chance to be with her. And you didn't want to be. Your date didn't go well. So…" she pauses, knows the next words she's going to say are going to crucial and life-changing.

She knows that Lucas asking her out has been all she's wanted for the last year, but he's also dragged this thing on too long, and she's a girl in love with a boy and she's not sure he's ever loved her back.

"So what have you been doing for the last year? I gave you the chance to be with her, and you didn't want to. So why didn't you want to be with me then either?" It's the least Riley she's ever sounded, and later, when she tells Farkle about this, his eyes will go wide and he'll hug her - tight.

Riley doesn't know where all this hurt has come from. She wanted to protect their friendship – hers and Maya's and their friendship with Lucas. Yet, since New Year's – since Maya started liking him really – she hasn't really felt like Lucas's friend at all.

Lucas looks baffled and a little hurt. Riley tries to modulate her tone. "I know you mean well Lucas. I believe in Pluto, and I still believe in you. But if it took you a year to choose me, then maybe we're not meant to be together. Maybe we're not Cory and Topanga."

Riley hasn't been looking at him until the last words, when she sees his face and realizes he looks like he could cry. "Lucas – we'll always be friends. But … permission or not, Maya obviously liked you – maybe she still does. And permission or not, if you liked me, you should've known that without someone telling you what to do." She's not sure her words even make sense, but she knows suddenly that this is the bravest thing she's ever done.

Lucas shows her a jelly bean then and tells her about measuring how much he liked them both on a scale – about measuring their worth using a piece of candy. She smiles at him, sadly, like he's a lost little boy, and says simply, "Lucas."

"Riley – I don't understand. I thought this was what you wanted," he says.

She looks at him and then past him, at Maya in the background – at her best friend – who, yes, fell for a boy that she liked first, but who has also been dragged along for the past year. "I thought it was too," she says. Then adds, "Lucas, I always want to be your friend."

Even as she says it, she understands his baffled expression. She's heard the Cory and Topanga story her whole life, and Riley knows how this story was supposed to end. Girl falls into boy's lap. Girl and boy fall for each other. Girl's best friend expresses interest in boy. Boy picks original girl. Girl and boy live happily ever after.

But this is a plot twist she didn't plan. This is girl meets boy, girl's friend likes boy, boy chooses neither – until he finally has to choose one. Girl chooses herself and her best friend instead of the boy. This isn't true love, and it isn't a fairy tale.

But Maya has been her best friend since she was in elementary school, and that friendship is a story she's still writing. More importantly, Riley is beginning to wonder if it was bad that most of her middle school life revolved around a boy who couldn't – wouldn't – pick her.

She's picking herself now.

 **Author's Note:** I love Riley and Lucas together. I just thought that, if I was Riley, the talk at the bay window wouldn't have been enough to get me past the year of a love triangle.


End file.
